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S.F. Judge Orders Malaysian Professor Removed From U.S. No-Fly List

Assistant Professor Shirin Sinnar comments on the decision of a San Francisco judge to have a Malaysian professor removed from the national no-fly list.

A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the name of a Malaysian architecture professor removed from the U.S. government’s no-fly list.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said Tuesday in a two-page court filing that Rahinah Ibrahim’s inclusion on the list was a mistake. The ruling marks the first time someone has successfully challenged being included on the no-fly list.

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KQED’s Mina Kim talked on Wednesday with Stanford law professor Shirin Sinnar, who specializes in national security and counterterrorism law, and testified as an expert witness in the trial:

“Never before has a federal court actually said that the current procedures for trying to get off the list violate constitutional due process,” Sinnar said. “The challenge is to design a process that enables the government to realize its legitimate security objectives without sacrificing the basic liberties of individuals. The process right now has swung too far in the direction of permitting the government to list people without a sufficient, meaningful way for people to contest their inclusion.”